The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1887-08-26
miscellaneous.
TWICE MARRIED.
A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY.

A marriage license was issued in Chicago
short time ago, connected with which there
is story rs strange as any ever conceived in
the brain of n professional story-leller. 1t is
a story which requires not the art of the
story-teler to make it interesting; the bare
facts are enough. The parties to the contract
were married over seven years ago, were
never divorced, and yet procured license to
get married again. To begin ut the begin
ming:
In the spring of 1878 Wilhelm Hermann
emgratcd from his native home in Wurten-
berg, Germany, intending to settle with some
relatives in a small town in the State of Loui-
siana. When he got as far as New Orleans
he decided to stop there some time, aud
about two months after his arrival he was
married to Amelia Rettich, the daughter of
an old German resident of that city. Three
days after his marriage he was enliced by a
chance acquaintance into one of the low beer
saloons on the lcvee at New Orleans, was
drugged, robbed and carried aboard Ger.
man trading vessel bound for Newcastle,
England. IL was eight months later before
the vessel reached that port. Immediately
on gaining his liberty Hermann sought the
German consul at Newcastle and narrated
the story of his wrongs. He begged the con-
sui to assist him to return to his wife and
home at New Orleans without delay but the
consullrefused saying that as Hermann had
no naturalization papers or anything in the
way of legal claim on the Uuiled States, he
was still German citizen. Then the consul
sent for the captain of the vessel and COM
PEELED him to deliver Hermann to the German
authorities On his arrival at Berlin he was
pressed into the army, and bound over to
four-years' term of military service. He I'M
derwent the drudgery and severe discipline
to which unwilling recruits are subjected in
the German army for space of nearly three
years, when seeing a chance to escape from
the country, he deserted. All this time he
had been constantly looking forward with an
all abiding faith, and love, and hope to
reunion with his bride. He reached New
Orleans exactly four years after his first ar
rival in that city. He then learned that his
wife, thinking him dead, had married again
and left the city, no one knew whittier. He
started out to search for her. For nearly
year he wandered over the greater part of the
Southern States, following many clews which
turned out to be false, until at last he re-
ceived q letter from herself. She told him
she had given him up for lost until she
CHANGED to see his advertisement for her on O
stray page of New Orleans newspaper;
that she had married William Chapman that
her second husband had been rather unfor-
of residence several times hoping for better
luck; and that they had now settled down
in small frontier town in Western Kansas.
She proposed to leave Chapman and go with
him, her own true husband, If he came for
her. He Immediately started for Tabuta,
Kansas, where his wife resided, arriving there
five days later The day following his arri-
val, William Chapman, the second husband,
was found lying dead on his own doorstep
with bullet through his brain. Two days
later Hermann was lodged in the county Jail
on charge OF wllful murder.
The morning following the arrest the pris-
oner was taken before the local justice for
examination. A crowd of rough, bearded
fronliersmen thronged the little room where
the proceedings were held. Justice was usu-
GUS crimes Judge Lynch reigned supreme.
In this case, so far as the spectators knew,
the prisoner had been arrested on mere sus-
picion as being stranger. If evidence
turned up to prove him guilty there was no
jail strong enough to hold him from the ven
geance of the people, nor any legal power
sufficient to stay the execution of his death
warrant or punish those who carried it out.
The first witness was Mrs. Chapman, fair,
childsh-ooking little woman, whose woe
BECOME face and widows weeds sent muir
muir of sympathy through the Spectators
She testified that the previous Sunday even
ing she had paid visit to a neighbor. Had
| been gone about an hour, and on coming
home found her husband lying dead on the
doorstep. Her husband did not carry pis-
tol there had never been pistol in the
house to her knowledge. She believed her
husband had no reason to commit suicide I;
was certain he would not do such thing.
He had sold cattle few days before, and had
the money in his pockctbook that day-$120
in currency. He had small gold watch in
his vest pocket, with q black silk ribbon and
charm attached The watch was hers-a
present from her mother several years ago.
Both money and watch had disappeared. She
did not miss them until the day after, owing
to the excitement. She presumed robbery had
been the motive for the crime; she knew of
no other.
"Do you know the prisoner ?" asked the
Judge.
"Yes" she faltered.
"Do you know his business in coming
here?"
No reply, The question was repeated.
| ooh Judge" she burst out, with torrent
of sobs, che Is my husband But he didn't
do it, Oh, Judge. God knows he is inno-
cantp
A buzz of excitement spread through the
| room.
"Silence p said the Judge, rapping his desk
sharply.
Then il was found the witness had tainted
in her chair. Presently she recovered, and
eventually the story other first marriage and
recent discovery of herself by the prisoner
was wrung from her. Only once the priso-
ner spoke.
"Tell me the whole truth, Amelia, and fear
nothing" he said.
She said the prisoner had been to her house
the day of the murder. Her husband-the
deceased-was of on the farm at the time
She had decided to break the news to him
that night and 60 of with her first husband
the accused-the next day and would have
done so but for what occurred.
Medical evidence was given to prove that
the deceased had not committed suicide.
Then the policeman was called. He testi-
fled to the steps taken to discover the MUIR
derer. He discovered the fact ofthe prisoners
visit to Chapman's house, and on that
ground had made tho arrest. The prisoner
had freely told the story of his marriage, and
that his business here was to get his wife, who
was living with Chapman. The only money
the prisoner had on his person when arrested
was about $25 in greenbacks and silver and
$40 in gold certificates. He had neither pis-
tol nor watch.
Then the prisoner was asked to testify